How Do I Love Thee? DIYZ Will Help Me Count the Ways

Disclosure: This post is in collaboration with the DIYZ® app. All opinions of apps and companies that help me complete DIY projects are my own.

Mother’s Day is coming and this year I wanted to do something different. Instead of buying some earrings, I partnered with DIYZ to help make my wife’s kitchen dreams come true! They helped me with the project, but all opinions contained herein are my own.

So…What’re YOU Doing for Mother’s Day?

Yeah, I know, it’s a loaded question. Not fair. But seriously, it’s coming up super fast. What’re you doing? Luckily for me, several years ago, I learned that my wife’s love language is ‘acts of service’. So, this year, as I was beating my head against the wall trying to figure out what to get my wife for Mother’s Day, she gave me the perfect segue. She was talking about how we needed to update the kitchen.

And she wasn’t wrong! Our kitchen was one of the first rooms I got to ‘design’ in our house. I picked out the paint, wallpaper trim etc. In fact, I remember hanging that wallpaper and bragging about how the idiot that had to take it down was in for some hard times. Little did I know then that idiot would be me. And I wasn’t wrong! But I digress.

It was then that I decided that I would give my wife a ‘Kitchen Refresh’ for Mother’s Day. And the clock was already ticking. So, I did what anyone would do, I called someone to come do it for me!

I kid. Seriously, it’s like you don’t even know me! No, I’m a pretty handy guy, so I started perusing through the DIYZ (pronounced “Dee- eye-wise) app to see what projects they had available. The app is free to download in both the Apple iTunes Store and Google Play. Obviously, I needed to paint. And lo and behold! There was a section on the app about painting a room! That decided it, I was going to paint the kitchen!

DIYZ Got Me Covered

Now, I will say that I went into just a tad more than just painting the room since the app has tons of DIY projects ranging from electrical to plumbing and wood work, but more on that in a moment.

Then, I looked at the room and thought about what else I could do to make the room ‘pop’. So, I thought to myself, “What about a backsplash?” I mean, it wasn’t like that was the first time I had thought it. I had thought it the last time my wife asked me how hard it would be to put up a blacksplash and I ran screaming into the night as a distraction from having to think about what was entailed in putting up a backsplash.

At any rate, I dug through the app and look what I found!

Now, my wife had previously pointed out some tile she thought would look good as a backsplash awhile back. Remember the whole running screaming thing? Yeah, then.

I stumbled across a project that I decided to do that just plain makes sense. Also, I’m sort of kicking myself for not having thought of doing sooner! I’m replacing an outlet with one that ALSO has USB ports!

Looking at the directions, I decided it wouldn’t take too long so I ordered an outlet right in the app via Amazon.

And because it came in super fast, it ended up being the first project I did. All in all, it took me longer to find out which breaker controlled that outlet than it did to actually install the outlet!

Fun fact: My phone was actually plugged in when I took this picture!

Next up, I took on the whole painting thing…because it was going to take the most prep work. Which meant, scrubbing the walls down. Any bit of oil or dust on the wall and your paint won’t stick! And because it’s a kitchen…there’s grease and dust build up all over the place on the walls. Especially in those places up high that don’t get a ton of attention.

This is on top of the cabinets…and the walls were worse than I thought they’d be. Ugh.

Also, painting would require the removal of a wallpaper border. And it was a bit of a booger. Which if you’re a ‘bright side’ sort of person might mean that whatever suffering I went through trying to remove it from the wall was proportional to the amount of work I did to put it up those many years ago.

Not going to lie, there were a few spots where I was so proud of the seam lines in this border. This corner, however, wasn’t one of them.

Also, I mentioned earlier, doing something other than just painting the wall. We’re about to get to that part. And here’s the special spot that got the extra attention!

Once I got the wall paper pulled down, I decided that this wall should be an Art Wall! Originally, I was just going to tack a wooden frame on the wall and call it done. (Which wouldn’t have been all that bad, mind you.) Instead, I took it to the next level.

I put a magnetic primer over the red paint. After several coats of magnetic primer, I think it’s ready.

Painting Fact! If you decide to go with a magnetic primer for your wall like this…ventilate the room! This was the fumiest paint I’ve ever used and ended up getting a headache from the fumes because I didn’t have enough windows open on the first coat. The next couple of coats, with fan blowing and windows open, it was smooth sailing.

Now, we have an entire wall that is magnetic! This is kind of a big deal because we have a non-magnetic stainless steel refrigerator and the boys’ artwork hasn’t had an adequate viewing section. Problem solved!

Now, on to that backsplash. Here’s what we were looking at before:

Yeah, I know, the countertop was messy. I was in the middle of painting the rest of the kitchen…this stuff had to go somewhere!

At any rate, long story short, I was able to get the tile my wife was looking at when she sent me running and screaming into the distance suggesting that I put it up. But, hey, it’s Mother’s Day, right? Time to put in some extra effort! I mean, it’s only fair, she DID give birth to my sons…

And in one afternoon…BAM! Backsplash, baby! And, when it’s all said and done, I’m legit wondering what took me so long to put it up. And also why it sent me running and screaming into the night like that.

What’s that? Yes, I know what you’re thinking.

WHERE ARE THE KIDS?

Well, the lead up to this project, they were REALLY just champing at the bit to get this done and they both told me on several occasions that they wanted to help with the painting. So, I did was any sane person would do.

I pulled the refrigerator out and let them paint the wall behind it!

Yeah, that floor needed a good scrubbing! Eek!

They both really buckled down and helped paint for about 15 minutes. Which was 13 minutes longer than I was expecting!

Mostly, though, the boys kept mom busy so she wasn’t eagle-eyeing everything going on in the kitchen. She was pretty excited when she saw it. Between that look and the ease of use of the DIYZ app, made it all worthwhile.

So, Mother’s Day is coming. Add to that May is National Home Improvement Month…you’re going to want this app. I loved the fact that I can scroll through the app, find a project, and then see a complete list of materials that I’m going to need for said project, before I do anything. Usually, it’s me sitting at the shop racking my brain trying to make sure I have all of the materials I’m going to need, while knowing that I’m probably going to have to come back and get something I forgot.

Also, everything is broken down into step-by-step instructions and segmented videos. You can get a really good visualization of what you’re going to need to do before you even start. And if you find a particular section that doesn’t make sense and need someone to talk you through it, they have a section just for that! Right there up at the top…”Talk to a Pro”. You can chat for FREE with a Pro Advisor (who are licensed contractors) Monday through Friday from 6:00 PM – 1:00 AM ET and on the weekends from 8:00 AM – 1:00 ET. I mean, really what more do you need?

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